Fantôme Boo! | Brasserie Fantôme

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Pours a murky orange with a foamy bone colored head that settles to a film on top of the beer. Small dots of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of malt, tobacco, earth, wood, and a slight sweat-like aroma. Taste is much the same with a smokey and funky flavor on the finish. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer with some interesting aromas and flavors that get better as the beer warms up.

I've come to accept that fantome beers in the united states can be hit or miss, packaging and time and green glass and whatever else, but this one is a great success, at least my bottle was. an odd and rarer amber style saison, not enough of these around, hazy and muted in color, but with a positively massive white head with great retention and spider web lacing everywhere. it smells a bit funky, feet and socks meet weird ale yeast and summery harvest season funk, all in a good way. its yeast driven for sure, like all fantome beers, but it has a great grain profile. luxurious in feel too, but i taste the caramel color of the beer all the way through, along with a more meaty wheat profile that sticks all over the palate. carbonation is really intense, but can hardly penetrate the malty density of this, which i love, but its also dry as anything, crockery and crisp for a saison, and the yeast leaves a funky sensation on the tongue. just top quality beer, as interesting as they get, love the yeast and the heavier grain bill on it. expansive and large, but a very well hidden 8% abv. well worth the price.

Another rustic and quality Saison crawling out of the farmhouses in Belgium. Desined with autumn in mind, the beer latches onto the spices and harvest of the season and keeps Hallow's Eve in mind.

Golden-orange in color, the racy ale erupts with intense carbonation. Like champagne, its spritzy nature fuels a light fluffy off-white froth that carpets the beer edge to edge and laces remarkably. Its bottle refermentation yields specks of yeast that layer on the bottom of the glass.

Oddly compelling aromas of dry malt, grain, wafers, and yeast rise just ahead of fermentation spice. Leading with white pepper, cumin and nutmeg, the beer rounds out with a pumpkin gourd-like pungent aroma that's vegetal and grassy.

The malt and grain medley ends up grainy-sweet with dry crackers and dough in taste. Its short-lived sweetness turns over to earthy and spicy flavors before the taste of garden variety vegetables emerge. Cork-like wood taste couples with fresh cracked pepper, earthy cumin, and cellar-like must. Remaining dry and zesty, the flavors reign in gourd and melon flavors that are somewhat dull but not unappealingly so.

Its mouthfeel is just as dry as its taste. Early sweetness is cast aside as the peppery prickle sensation refresh the palate and keep the beer light on the palate and stomach. Finishing arid, warm, and bone-dry the beer's flavors are almost enjoyed more in aftertaste than in real time.

Fantome keeps the hundreds of years of farmhouse character alive with rusticity, authenticity, and raw charm even while keeping experimental and current. I rather enjoyed this inquisitive ale although its vegetable and fruit components are a little unsettled.

I pulled it from the fridge and it felt far too cold to serve, so I let it warm for a bit. Side-poured with standard vigor as no carbonation issues are anticipated.

A: Pours a two finger beige colour head of nice cream and thickness, and good retention for the high ABV. Body colour is a dull tangerine-copper. No yeast particles are visible. No bubble show. Nontransparent; opaque. Not great looking for a saison, but passable.

T: The subtle spices hit me first, but I'm not well-equipped enough to identify all of them. Pumpkin, vegetables, orange/light lemon citrus, subtle barnyard funk. Basil. Cinnamon, ginger, cilantro. Maybe coriander, actually; I have trouble discerning between coriander and cilantro (after all, they're sort of the same). Well balanced, if assertive. Some pepper as it warms. It's certainly spicy - a bit from the yeast. No alcohol comes through in the flavour. Orange rind guides the second act to the finish - but it's fermented and restrained, not in your face like a hefeweizen.

Mf: Delightfully dry, with a luscious wet surge on the climax to refresh and rehydrate. More smooth than course. Somewhat milky - a characteristic I've noticed in fine saisons. Carbonation is excellent. Ideal thickness.

Dr: Quite drinkable; the ABV hardly comes through. A lovely little saison, and quite fruit-guided - a characteristic I haven't noted in most beers in the style. Very subtle and complex all around. Another delightful saison from Fantome. I don't know that I'd buy this over the superior Fantome Saison, but it's a nice variant. I'd recommend it to friends.

Low B

*I manipulated the appearance rating to get the letter grade that was fair and consistent for my rating system. Please see my profile for more information.

Served in a Fantome tulip. Nose has some banana and spice and a bit of plastic, which ten comes more through in the taste. Dry herbal bitterness. Quite odd. I've had this one twice now and have not enjoyed it at all either time, though I've heard that others whose tastes I trust have had better experiences, so maybe the third time will be the charm.

The beer is hazy and amber colored with a thin head. The aroma brings citrus, odd funk, grain, yeast. The flavor is interesting. Not particularly tasty, but I didn't loathe this to the same extent as some others in the group. Lots of citrus and a chewy, bready mouthfeel. Some yeasty funk notes, but also some displaced floral hops and some medicinal and vegetal notes as well. This is just an odd brew. I suspect the bottle variation has a wide range, from excellent to not so much. I just found this to be rather weird and off-putting. I've had some great beers from Fantôme, but unfortunately, just as many duds. This is a dud.

750ml bottle into a matching Fantome tulip. The brew appears a very clouded light brown to burnt copper color. Dare I say it looks like a mild pumpkin puree of sorts or maybe more along the lines of fresh pressed cider. Cider is definitely a fitting description. An initial surge of nearly 3 fingers of off-white froth forms atop and slowly tapers to a half finger sitting atop. A light swirl reforms a finger and produces some spotty patches of lacing effect on the glass. When held to the light, there is a lighter golden to yellow coloration seen around the edges.

I want to say the aroma is different but seriously we are talking Fantome here and that is a given. Quite frankly I had no idea what to expect going into this and no matter what preconceived notion I might have had, this really is just...different. However, it has a familiarity about it like some other recent Fantome offerings. Smoke and earthy leather are the first things that strike my mind. Think rich smokey and earthy brett character. If you read white lab's description of Brettanomyces lambicus, that is exactly what this smells like. When taking a deep whiff of this brew, there is an earthy sweetness across the back that is somewhat reminiscent of pumpkin/yams/sweet potatoes with a hint of a very mild spice like cinnamon, nutmeg and a fruity quality faintly like lemony ginger. When looking at the label of this brew, you really want to think this is going to be a pumpkin beer. However, it is a very smoke heavy sort of saison in the Fantome way.

The taste is very much like the nose but in a much more intensified way. A rich smoke flavoring lays across the tongue. Instead of being the typical smoked malt flavor, this is much more deep and has a bit of pete'd presence and phenolic character that is borderline like plastic mixed with fresh cracked black pepper. That faint hint of plastic blends into a more funky and earthy aspect that leads me back into thinking of things more like vegetative pumpkin flesh and seeds meets leather and tobacco smoke. Each sip seemingly yields a bit more character that you completely missed out on with your last sip. Some sips yield a bit of focus on residual sugar like toffee/caramel and still other sips transition into a bit of fruited quality like lemon and ginger. As the brew comes up to temperature, the aftertaste leaves you with traces of typical pumpkin pie spices: cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg but with a strange jerk who wasnt invited the party but showed up anyway unannounced: black pepper. Who is this guy and what is he doing here? Who cares, it works with the smoke and earthen tones. Side note: as I pour a second glass, there is certainly a warming aspect in this like spicy peppers that intensifies the alcohol content and leaves a lingering spiciness on the tongue.

This is a medium bodied brew with a moderate amount of carbonation. For the list 8% abv, this is very much atypical of Fantome in that you really feel the perfume-like alcohol presence and it almost feels like it is stronger than whats listed on the label. Whereas the usual Fantome saison is 8% but drinks like it is 3, this is totally opposite of that and you know you are drinking a big beer. This brew was an absolute awesome ride. I started off thinking it was peculiar and the smoke was weird and out of place. Half way through my glass I started to love it. By the end of my glass I am totally confused, perplexed and just want to drink more. This is the most crazy complex beer I have drank this year. Seriously, its not every day that each sip you take is completely different from the last.

After the fact thoughts: this is going to be a very polarizing beer. People will most likely either love it or hate it. It is very different and while my first impression was not the most favorable, im glad I had the time to sit and enjoy it as it evolved in my glass.

Edit: 10 days after this review, we opened a second bottle and it was a completely different experience. Most of what I described above was absent. No smoke inclusion but instead a pretty significant tartness and fruity lemon quality.

Poured into a Gavroche tulip. Gusher! I prepared by getting a glass ready and opening in the sink, but this one geysered out and I lost half the bottle before getting the glass in place. Once things calmed down, this poured a quite cloudy brownish orange, appropriate for pumpkin with a huge light tan head that dissipated to a thin film with light lacing. Aroma spicy, dominated by sweet potato and winter squash, lightly earthy and very autumnal. Flavor starts with light squash, saison yeast, light stone fruit, brett, mildly earthy but slightly sweet, then gets incredibly astringent, finishing with pure bitterness with little flavor. Medium bodied with active carbonation. I looked forward to what Fantome could do with a pumpkin ale and the first part of the taste was mild, but interesting in a earthy farmhouse way. The finish was too astringent, like an aspirin, overwhelming the interesting vegetable flavors. Not a fresh bottle, but stored in a cooler and labeled as good through 2015. This was a miss for me from an interesting brewery that usually pleases.

S - Aroma is somewhat bizarre, with a mix of pumpkin pie and phenolic farmhouse yeast. There's some definite nutmeg or allspice in there, and perhaps a touch of cinnamon. Estery yeast, odd vegetal notes, a bit starchy, perhaps a bit of funky brett too? Not really sure what to compare this with.

T- I like the taste better, as the spice and vegetal flavors are dialed back and the base saison contributes some stone fruits, perhaps a dab of candi sugar, and bready Belgian yeast flavors. There's some nebulous squash and herb flavors but they're less distinct. Alcohol is well-hidden. Oddly enjoyable after a while.

M - Medium body, zesty carbonation, grainy and tannic texture, and a dry finish. No alcohol presence as far as I can discern, although I stopped believing any ABV found on Fantôme labels long ago.

D - The aroma is very weird, and I can imagine it might be off-putting to some. It's fairly drinkable, but not at the top of my list for Fantôme offerings to purchase again. I'd take a small pour if someone offered this to me, but not something I urgently need to revisit.

The aroma has fermented apricot, tons of phenolic and band aids. Some funk in there.

The flavor follows with this apple cider sweetness, a bit of fermented fruit flavor, again the band aid phenols. There’s lots of spice and green herbal. Actually a bit of lemon tartness going on. An extremely weird amagalmation of fruits and chemicals and herbs and spices. Strange.

A weird beer. The flavors were interesting, but it didn’t work for me. I actually had to drain pour this.

Picked up at Hunger Mountain Co-op on a trip through Vermont. Bottle of 86/477044

A - Pours into my Duvel tulip with a nice crystal clear, full of effervescence , coppery pumpkin golden hue with a massive almost three finger white head that slumps down to leave thick, rocky head and nice clumpy lacing.

M - Mouthfeel is your typical solid fantome. Champagne level of carbonation here as would be evident by how the cork POPPED.

O - Overall, this was quite the strange beer. Its not bad, and I can kind of see where he was going with this beer, just not for me. Glad I got to try it, wish I had someone to share the bottle with as a 750mL is a bit much.